Browsing by Author "Andriambeloson, Jean-Basile"

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Open Access
Forest access restores foraging and ranging behavior in captive sifakas.
(Zoo biology, 2023-03) Greene, Lydia K; Andriambeloson, Jean-Basile; Blanco, Marina B; Ehmke, Erin E
Captive wildlife benefit from ecologically informed management strategies that promote natural behaviors. The Duke Lemur Center has pioneered husbandry programs rooted in species' ecology for a diversity of lemurs, including housing social groups in multiacre forest enclosures. We systematically document the foraging and ranging patterns of Coquerel's sifakas (Propithecus coquereli) living in these forest enclosures. Coquerel's sifakas are seasonal frugo-folivores that exhibit striking feeding flexibility in the wild. They are also one of the few members of the Indriidae family to persist in captivity. During all-day follows in the spring and summer of 2 consecutive years, we tracked the behavior of 14 sifakas in six forest enclosures. The sifakas' ranging and foraging patterns reflected those of wild sifakas in western Madagascar: On average, DLC sifakas occupied 3-day home ranges of 1.2 ha, traveled 473 m/day, and spent 26% of their time foraging for wild foodstuffs. The sifakas foraged most for young and mature leaves, fruits, nuts, and flowers from 39 plant species, especially red maple (Acer rubrum), tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), grapevine (Vitis rotundifolia), hickory (Carya spp.), and white oak (Quercus alba). Foraging patterns varied across seasons, enclosure areas, and groups, potentially reflecting differences in phenology, microhabitats, and individual preferences. While demonstrating that captive-bred primates express wild-like behaviors under ecologically relevant conditions, our results underscore the feeding flexibility of the Coquerel's sifaka. Captive wildlife exhibiting the range of species-specific behaviors are key resources for ecological research and might be best suited for future reintroductions.
Open Access
Variation in gut microbiome structure across the annual hibernation cycle in a wild primate.
(FEMS microbiology ecology, 2022-07) Greene, Lydia K; Andriambeloson, Jean-Basile; Rasoanaivo, Hoby A; Yoder, Anne D; Blanco, Marina B
The gut microbiome can mediate host metabolism, including facilitating energy-saving strategies like hibernation. The dwarf lemurs of Madagascar (Cheirogaleus spp.) are the only obligate hibernators among primates. They also hibernate in the subtropics, and unlike temperate hibernators, fatten by converting fruit sugars to lipid deposits, torpor at relatively warm temperatures, and forage for a generalized diet after emergence. Despite these ecological differences, we might expect hibernation to shape the gut microbiome in similar ways across mammals. We, therefore, compare gut microbiome profiles, determined by amplicon sequencing of rectal swabs, in wild furry-eared dwarf lemurs (C. crossleyi) during fattening, hibernation, and after emergence. The dwarf lemurs exhibited reduced gut microbial diversity during fattening, intermediate diversity and increased community homogenization during hibernation, and greatest diversity after emergence. The Mycoplasma genus was enriched during fattening, whereas the Aerococcaceae and Actinomycetaceae families, and not Akkermansia, bloomed during hibernation. As expected, the dwarf lemurs showed seasonal reconfigurations of the gut microbiome; however, the patterns of microbial diversity diverged from temperate hibernators, and better resembled the shifts associated with dietary fruits and sugars in primates and model organisms. Our results thus highlight the potential for dwarf lemurs to probe microbiome-mediated metabolism in primates under contrasting conditions.